I sat down with Oscar-winning screenwriter, actor, director and musician Billy Bob Thornton for Venice Magazine in October of 2001. He had a slate of very diverse projects he was promoting: his first solo music album, "Private Radio," as well as the films "Monster's Ball," "Bandits," and "The Man Who Wasn't There." My strongest memory is of Thornton's quiet intensity and an undercurrent of Southern affability, which came out once he decided you were okay. He seemed to feel that way about me after I shared with him my idolatry of legendary filmmaker Fred Zinnemann, something we shared. I also remember his unusual diet, when our lunch was served. Thornton got the biggest plate of sliced papaya I've seen to date, artfully presented. I got a seafood salad. He looked at my plate, smiled, and told me about the horrible shellfish allergy he'd been saddled with all his life, and how
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Remember when Bruce Willis used to make interesting, original movies, like Pulp Fiction, Twelve Monkeys and The Fifth Element? An air of excitement would surround each announcement detailing which project the actor would get involved with next. It’s been some time since that excitement has been felt, however, because Willis has essentially been making the same movie, repeatedly, for years. The next product from that assembly line will be Extraction, directed by Steven C. Miller (Silent Night).

The plot focuses on a father and son duo of – wait for it – CIA agents, with Willis as the seasoned elder operative who is traumatized by the – you guessed it – murder of his wife. His less-experienced CIA operative son is working with him on the manufacture of a super-weapon known as the Condor, but is thrust into the driving seat when his father, Willis, is kidnapped by terrorists. As he realizes that
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Elmore Leonard is the author of books that have been turned into such films as "Get Shorty," "Jackie Brown," "Out of Sight," "3:10 to Yuma" and many others. But the last two adaptations, "Life of Crime" and "Freaky Deaky," failed at the box office. Now comes word Leonard's "Bandits" novel is being turned into a film, with Bruce Willis set to play the lead role from a script by Mitch Glazer (Rock the Kasbah). Many years ago, Quentin Tarantino was considering making the movie. And this is the second time that Willis is attached to star. Back in 1987, Willis optioned the book, but never proceeded with the project. The comedy is set in New Orleans. Willis will play Jack Delaney, an ex-con who is struggling to stay on the straight path as he dresses up corpses as a mortician in his brother's funeral home. Things get much more exciting for
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Bruce Willis is taking a second run at the 1987 novel Bandits, by Elmore Leonard. The actor-producer originally acquired the rights to the work at the time of its publication, but those rights were allowed to lapse. The project is now moving forward once more, with the author’s son Peter Leonard, and grandson, Tim Leonard, on board as executive producers.

The crime thriller sees a former jewel thief team up with an ex-nun to perpetrate a multi-million dollar scam against a sadistic Nicaraguan colonel. The colonel is generating vast sums of money in the U.S to fund the contras in Nicaragua, and the former jewel thief – now bored in his job as a mortician – takes it upon himself to disrupt that cash flow. Added to that situational mix is the ex-nun’s desire to help a woman with leprosy, who happens to be a former lover of the Nicaraguan colonel.
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The black comedy is set in New Orleans and Willis will play Jack Delaney, an ex-con struggling to stay on the straight path working in his brother's funeral home. He soon meets a gorgeous lapsed nun freshly returned from Nicaragua who wants his help to smuggle out a beautiful young woman with leprosy.

Said woman has an ex-lover who is a mad Somoza-esque colonel who wants to kill her for possibly infecting him. He is also fleecing rich Americans to help fund the contras. As a result, Delaney sets out with the ex-nun and an ex-cop to stop the colonel and get away with his fortune.

It's increasingly rare to see Bruce Willis act like a professional and give a quality performance regardless of the material (of his last 12 films, his only worthwhile work was in Looper and Moonrise Kingdom), but perhaps he'll show his acting talent in an adaptation of Elmore Leonard's Bandits. Not to be confused with the forgettable 2001 Barry Levinson film of the same name, Willis optioned the black comedy when it was published in 1987, but the rights lapsed and were picked up by Quentin Tarantino along with the rights to three other Leonard novels. Tarantino only ended up adapting Rum Punch (into Jackie Brown), and now the rights are back in Willis' hands, who will produce the picture in addition to starring.
He's also getting his Rock the Kasbah director Mitch Glazer to pen the screenplay. Hit the jump for more.
If complex Elmore Leonard storylines are your bag, Bandits will likely have you covered.
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